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DomainRoundtable.com Now Live With Special Offer

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Domain Roundtable is coming back!  The conference, which was on a hiatus in 2010, will be held March 1-4, 2011 at the Atlantis Resort in  Nassau, Bahamas. Domain Roundtable is put on by Thought Convergence, the company that owns and operates Aftermarket.com, DomainTools, and Trafficz, among other leading domain companies.

The new DomainRoundtable.com website just went live after some aesthetic work, and organizers are now offering complementary Tuesday Excursions for the  first 100 people who register to attend. Popular excursions include behind the scenes tours, snorkeling, rum and cigar tasting, deep sea fishing, and more.

The early bird registration rate is an affordable $695, which will slowly increase to $995 as it gets closer to the conference.

As with most domain conferences, a live domain auction will be held on site, and they are now accepting domain submissions on the DRT website.

What to Do If Someone Backs Out of a Domain Deal

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If you’ve been investing in domain names long enough, it’s likely that you’ve experienced one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a domain investor. You’ve agreed to buy a domain name and the owner decides to back out for some reason.

For some it’s just frustrating, but for others there are bigger issues. Perhaps you started building out the domain name before you were in possession of it, or maybe you contacted potential buyers hoping to quickly flip it. Whatever the case, it’s a disappointment to say the least.

You may have options of you have an agreement in place, even if you don’t have an “official” contract with the seller.

My first recommendation is to be in touch with the seller and let him know you are not satisfied with the situation, especially if there isn’t an error/mistake behind the deal breaking down. Discuss options for buying other domain names or work out some sort of agreeable financial settlement for your inconvenience.

If this can’t be worked out, let him know you plan to seek legal council to remedy the situation if necessary. I like to keep lawyers out these types of situations, but let the seller know that is an option and perhaps just that threat will get him to sell, especially if he was reluctant to sell due to a higher offer.

Let the person know you plan to blog/write about the situation on a domain forum. If the seller is wrong and doesn’t have a good excuse (ie he received a higher offer or just doesn’t want to sell anymore), others should be warned about this for the future. If you opt for this route, make sure you state the facts accurately because what is written can not be taken back.

If you’ve exhausted all efforts on your own, you should be in touch with a lawyer who has domain name and IP experience (see this list of  domain name lawyers). A lawyer may be expensive, but if this is a key acquisition, you’ll want to know your legal recourse to complete the sale.

Afternic Records Nearly $400k in Domain Sales

Despite the fact that the last week of the year is typically a very slow week for domain sales, Afternic scored nearly $400,000 in domain sales, which only includes their public sales that were $2,000 and higher.

Leading the way was the sale of WEHR.com for $73,700. The former owner of Wehr.com was Mdnh, Inc., which is a subsidiary of the publicly traded Marchex. The current page at WEHR.com announces that the World Energy Holdings and Research website will be coming soon.

Here is a list of some of the public Afternic domain sales from the past week.

wehr.com $73,700.00
onlinebanks.com $30,000.00
BusinessPlanet.com $22,500.00
aone.com $10,000.00
surveyreport.com $7,200.00
gamesonline.org $6,988.00
calgarycanada.com $6,500.00
filetaxreturn.com $6,400.00
drtea.com $6,160.00
nyack.com $6,000.00
propertymanagementservices.com $5,188.00
leadking.com $5,000.00
merla.com $5,000.00
plazaonline.com $4,388.00
kluane.com $4,300.00
thedreamcatcher.com $4,300.00
telecell.com $4,188.00
optex.net $4,188.00
uploads.org $3,988.00
preferredprovider.com $3,810.00
publici.com $3,700.00
webtome.com $3,688.00
officekit.com $3,588.00
homeservice.net $3,500.00
autoinsurances.net $3,400.00
mercurycommunications.com $3,300.00
typesafe.com $3,288.00
airad.com $3,188.00
ibunker.com $3,188.00
sweettempered.com $3,188.00
neuralinterface.com $3,110.00
glowstudios.com $3,088.00
coloni.com $3,000.00
dlogic.com $2,988.00
exclusivehawaii.com $2,988.00
magicgifts.com $2,890.00
starofasia.com $2,800.00
dreamcommerce.com $2,788.00
unionassurance.com $2,788.00
mygocon.com $2,750.00
drivechain.com $2,700.00
vevie.com $2,691.00
telelive.com $2,655.00
bookbank.net $2,612.00
getpersonalized.com $2,600.00
influentialthinking.com $2,588.00
spiritentertainment.com $2,588.00
netprice.org $2,588.00
theprogram.org $2,588.00
webhostingserver.com $2,500.00
zorgeloos.com $2,500.00
groceryshoppers.com $2,488.00
fotolibro.net $2,488.00
stopit.net $2,488.00
gifthint.com $2,475.00
equalweight.com $2,400.00
studioprints.com $2,397.00
heyladies.com $2,388.00
myword.net $2,388.00
nakamura.net $2,300.00
fashionjewelrywholesale.com $2,288.00
tigercool.com $2,277.00
yourpaintings.com $2,239.00
airwireless.com $2,200.00
hostgeneral.com $2,188.00
learnbeyond.com $2,154.00
onlinespot.com $2,088.00
theuniversalgroup.com $2,088.00
carforsale.net $2,088.00
notme.net $2,088.00
otava.net $2,088.00
thinkaboutit.net $2,088.00
independenthotel.com $2,077.00
kosherwholesale.com $2,012.00
22u.com $2,000.00
ahcv.com $2,000.00
flowingstreams.com $2,000.00
javateak.com $2,000.00
nyhair.com $2,000.00
preferredcontractor.com $2,000.00
salestechnologies.com $2,000.00
tekstream.com $2,000.00
westkingdom.com $2,000.00

3 Domain Industry Predictions for 2011

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With the year coming to a close, I thought it would be a good time to make some predictions for the upcoming year.

– There will be a significant number of .CO drops around renewal time. I’ve seen a lot of really bad .CO domain names for sale (people emailing me telling me they need to sell urgently), and I am sure people will drop many of these bad purchases. Good keyword .CO domain names will increase in value by the end of 2011, spurred on by SMB adoption. I believe there will be at least 5 6-figure .CO domain sales.

– Monte Cahn will be back in the domain space in some way, although it probably won’t be for a large or well known company. Monte is one of the smartest guys in the industry, and I am sure his expertise is in high demand. I can imagine him starting up another company.

– There will be at least 10 publicly reported 7-figure domain sales during the course of the year. From my perspective, there are many people looking for liquidity, and there are also many people who have been getting liquid for the last year. Some of the people and companies who have significant cash reserves will look to reinvest, and high value, descriptive domain names will be a good option.

What predictions would you like to make for 2011?

What Are Your Development Projects?

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Some articles I write about are related to web development projects I am working on or have completed. I am lucky to be able to receive reader feedback and comments, which have helped me with my web development projects.

If it wasn’t for this blog, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to seek feedback from a wide range of domain investors, SEO experts, developers, and other experts who read my blog and post helpful comments.

In the comment section of a very popular blog post I wrote (over 300 comments so far), Louise asked if I could write a post where people could post their current domain development projects, and I think this is a great idea.

It would be interesting to know what projects people who read my blog are working on, and perhaps they can get some advice in the comment section and/or generate some ideas.

Some projects I am working on include:

  • DogWalker.com
  • DogGroomers.com
  • Bahamas.CO
  • SlipperyElm.com
  • AthensVacations.com
  • JerusalemVacations.com
  • TropicalBirds.com
  • Lowell.com
  • Dreidel.com
  • … many more

What are some of your current domain development projects?

Domaining.com Newsletter Now Requires Membership

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I just received an email from Francois Carrillo, owner of the popular Domaining.com domain news aggregator, announcing that the Domaining.com daily newsletter will no longer be available for free to everyone. The email is below:

From now only members having minimum a “Trader” membership could receive the daily Domaining.com newsletter.
A lot of our members already meet this requirement, it’s time for you to upgrade your membership.
And this way can participate in the 24H “no reserve” daily auctions website we are about to launch. It should be crazy!

I intend to sign up for the $10 lifetime “Trader” membership because I value the morning newsletter. I am not sure if there are other ways to achieve “Trader” membership status, but it’s not expensive for the value I receive.

I don’t love this idea from a business perspective because I believe that many people will not pay for this service and the newsletter readership may suffer. As a result, when I advertise articles and/or domain names for sale, the newsletter may reach less people than when it was free, decreasing my marketing cost effectiveness.

As discussed many times before, Carrillo has every right to make any business decision necessary to keep his business viable. However, I think it would be far more effective to actively promote a free newsletter to domain investors and simply make up for any lost revenue on sponsored advertisements, which will be more valuable if there are more readers.

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